Various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change and pleased with novelty, may be indulged-Cowp. Vol. VI. Philadelphia, Saturday, July 2, 1808.. For The Port Folio. TRAVELS. ORIGINAL PAPERS. LETTERS FROM GENEVA AND FRANCE. Written during a residence of between two and three years in different parts of those countries, and addressed to a lady in Virginia. (Continued from vol. V, page 406.) LETTER XXVII. My dear E IT is now time that I should say something to you of the history of Geneva, which I will do, depend upon it, in as few words as possible, passing rapidly from the time of Cæsar to the last revolution; and rather pointing out to you the particular subjects and periods upon which you ought to seek for information if you are so disposed, which I confess to you however, that I hardly believe you will be, than attempting to convey it. Cæsar desirous of stopping the Helvetii from leaving their country, hastened to Geneva, then a No. 1. town of some importance, but as the theatre of the war was speedily removed to a very distant quarter, he says nothing of a place which it would have been so agreeable to us to have had a description of from such a hand: this being the case, you must be satisfied to take a step of nearly five hundred years, when Geneva, which, had shared in all the calamities, that assailed the declining age of the Roman empire, became the capital of the Burgundians, and the residence of the great king Gondebaud, who erected walls, which are yet to be traced; built himself a palace, which thirteen hundred years have not destroyed all remains of; and published a code of laws. It w was from Geneva that his niece set out in an ox cart, the gen teel equipage of those days, to join her husband Clovis, the founder of the French monarchy, whom she had the glory and satisfaction of converting to the Christian faith; he could not however, (this great |